Second Intermission: For Hockey Fans Who Want More Than Hot Takes

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In the words of great 21st century poet and philosopher Jay-Z, allow me to reintroduce myself.
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Every game tells two stories.
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The one everyone hates, and the one that happens behind the scenes.
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Welcome to Second Intermission with Ann Kimmel.
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McFarland is filling out the demographic that was previously Luke Van Talista and Septemberweeds.
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From inside the Natural Predators locker room to the Milwaukee Admirals and around the NHL, you'll find thoughtful analysis, real conversations, and the stories behind the tour.
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This could be one of the best deals they've done in years.
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Whether this is your first season watching hockey or you've lived and breathed the game for decades, there's a seat for you here.
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This is Second Intermission.
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Let's drop the pup.
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Welcome to the first ever episode of Second Intermission, a podcast where hockey analysis and storytelling come together without a lot of extra angst.
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I'm Ann Kimmel.
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I am your host, and let's face it, there is a lot of noise in sports these days here in Nashville.
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There has even recently been a lot of noise about a lot of sports noise.
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If you know, you know.
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I personally have never been particularly interested in that.
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What I am interested in is the game of hockey.
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I love the numbers that help explain it.
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I love the stories that help make it matter.
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I love the questions that are worth asking.
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And sometimes I just love the ride of being a hockey fan.
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Second intermission is a place for Nashville Predators fans.
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Hockey fans will share NHL stories, stats, analysis, interviews, and we're going to have plenty of conversations, probably without a lot of extra angst.
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So what is second intermission?
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First of all, let's acknowledge that no marketing firm in their right mind would say you should start a podcast that has six syllables in its name.
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Someday I may shorten it to two I.
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We'll see about that.
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But I chose the name Second Intermission very carefully because here's what's real hockey teams can say and believe anything during warmups.
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I love the Mike Tyson quote everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.
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But when it comes to the second intermission of a hockey game, teams now have 40 minutes of real life experience and they have to have conversations to figure out what they want to do with the last 20 minutes of this game.
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The second intermission conversations tend to be a little bit more intentional.
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So when I decided to start my own coverage, I knew I wanted to start a place where conversations were a little bit more intentional, where we talk about stories and analytics and education in a way that is open and inviting to everybody.
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There is no test here at Second Intermission to see if you know enough about hockey.
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This is a place for the hockey curious.
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This is a place for a typical hockey fan.
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This is also going to be a place for those I just want to see a Stanley Cup parade down Broadway in my lifetime diehards.
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I want to provide something here for everybody on that spectrum.
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I also chose the name Second Intermission because covering hockey came in a new season of my life, a little later in my life.
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But I do feel like the non-traditional route I took has shaped my perspective about what I want to create here.
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I have been covering the Nashville Predators now for I think seven years.
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I believe I have been a credentialed media member going on my fifth season now.
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I have loved sports since I was young.
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My introduction to sport came via Walter Payton.
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Watching this regular person do superhuman things just made me believe in the magic and the story of sports.
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I also grew up loving Andre Agassi, like long hair Andre Agassiz, if you know what I mean.
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Um I was a very nice girl who loved the bad boys of the NBA.
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Um, I loved football, baseball, I loved tennis, volleyball, all of the Olympic sports.
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Truly, though, my first love was football.
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Pulling back the curtain a little bit, my husband and I love football so much.
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We named one of our children after a favorite NFL player that retired the year my son was born.
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A little bit even more over share pre-smartphones in the bathroom.
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Our reading material was always the NFL rule book in our bathrooms.
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I came to hockey very late in life, where I grew up.
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There was not a lot of opportunity or exposure to hockey.
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The Nashville Predators were my introduction to hockey.
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Matias Eckholm was my gateway drug.
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I knew so little about hockey when I went to my first game.
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Shout out to my friend Eli, who kept inviting me to check out hockey in the Nashville Predators game with her.
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I remember after I agreed, I asked her, Do I need chapstick?
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Because look, friends, it is an ice sport.
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That is a fair question.
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When we got to Bridgestone Arena, I wanted to know why they had timeout booths.
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Those are the penalty boxes.
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But the moment that the puck dropped on the ice, I suddenly became a very different person.
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The old Anne died, and in her place was a person who just had fallen in love with this new sport that was unfolding in front of me.
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It was really uh almost life-changing to see hockey for the first time.
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That has only happened to me a couple of times in my life.
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At my first game at Bridgestone Arena, it also did happen the first time I test drove my Dodge Charger RT with a Hemi V8 engine in sport mode.
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Uh I just realized there was a 17-year-old gearhead boy that lived inside of me that had to get out.
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So that was also pretty life-changing.
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I also loved that hockey was this international sport.
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Going in, I knew Americans and Canadians played hockey.
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But on the card we were given to Enter Bridgestone Arena was a picture of Matthias Eckholm.
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And when I found out he was Swedish, I thought, wait a second, these may be my people.
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I grew up in a predominantly Swedish community.
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I grew up and was married in the oldest Swedish Lutheran church east of the Mississippi.
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Sweden has always been a big part of my family's culture and the culture of where I lived.
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I actually, when I was a very little girl, got to sing for King Karl, the king of Sweden, when he visited our church on a trip through the United States.
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We sang the hymn Children of the Heavenly Father for him in Swedish.
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I still know it, every word of it.
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So I just suddenly fell in love with hockey, the game in front of me, the players who played hockey.
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And I just thought, I have to know everything about this new sport.
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And so that's what I did.
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I began to read everything that I could.
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I asked questions, I watched games, I went on YouTube and watched training videos.
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I really became hockey obsessed.
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I wanted to learn everything that I could about this sport.
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And that's what I said about doing.
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Now I know I know that there are people that say that if you haven't played hockey yourself, you have no business talking about hockey.
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And I just want to say to those people, the epidemic of male obstetricians is gonna absolutely blow your mind.
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You're gonna want to tackle that too.
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Eventually, I got a job writing about the Nashville Predators that went on and morphed into opportunities at several different national outlets that include Sports Illustrated and the hockey news.
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I also co-hosted a podcast all about the Nashville Predators five days a week.
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I did that for four years.
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So if I have these opportunities, what am I doing?
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Creating something new.
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Pulling back the curtain again a little bit, a family health issue really challenged me last year to take a little bit of a step away from what I was doing.
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And that time gave me an opportunity to dream about what I would want to create if I could start a media platform from scratch.
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This is that dream coming to life.
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I am here to talk about hockey and to share the stories with you that make this sport so great.
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And we're gonna cover it all.
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We're gonna talk about game previews, recaps, we're gonna discuss and debate roster and front office decisions.
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We're gonna look at statistics, tackle breaking news.
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I'm gonna tell you stories that help me personally remember that Justin Barron's underlying defensive statistics are not going to change my life dramatically when I'm 80 years old.
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Some of the most interesting conversations that I have ever had have taken place in the locker room, talking with players, with coaches, and with front office people.
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And I want to ask the questions and really listen to those answers and share with you maybe a little bit of a different perspective on hockey.
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We're gonna cover everything predators, we're gonna talk prospects, we're gonna talk Milwaukee Admirals, we're gonna talk about the big NHL storylines that come along during the season, trends and analytics.
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So, what are you gonna find with this second intermission?
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First, you are gonna get this weekly podcast.
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On Mondays, I am gonna drop a podcast show where we'll talk about all kinds of different aspects of hockey.
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I'm gonna introduce you to some of my favorite people that I've met in this sport as well.
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It's not gonna always just be me.
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Don't you panic.
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That's gonna be our main show on Mondays.
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When the season starts, I'm gonna be dropping some quick hits.
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So we'll talk about game takeaways, we'll talk about breaking news, things like that as well.
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I have not given up on writing about hockey.
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All of my written work can be found on Substack at and Kimmel.substack.com.
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We're gonna talk stats, facts, we're gonna share some of the stories.
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I also suspect that this will be a place where we laugh and enjoy hockey along the way.
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I'm gonna ask the questions.
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I'm gonna do the work, and I'm gonna always try to give you something more than the loudest opinion of the day.
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It's not just a podcast, this is a community.
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So I invite you to jump in, ask your questions.
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I want to hear what you are thinking about what we're talking about.
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Comment.
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The most important thing you can do is subscribe so you know every time Second Intermission drops a new episode or a quick hit.
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You can subscribe to Second Intermission on YouTube, on your favorite audio podcast platforms.
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I'm even on TikTok at second intermission.
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I'm trying to TikTok, y'all.
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It's a whole new world out there.
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On Twitter and Instagram, you can always follow me there at Ann K underscore Mama on Ice as well.
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And again, you can find my writing and you can support my work on Substack at ankimel.substack.com.
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So this is just an introduction to second intermission.
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And to me, I am so excited to drop some new episodes for you.
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Thank you so much for giving me a moment of your time.
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I hope here at second intermission you find some things that make you think, that make you laugh, and just make you enjoy hockey a little bit more.
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Take care, and I will see you at the next Second Intermission.
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That's gonna do it for this edition of Second Intermission.
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If you enjoyed today's conversation, be sure to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and watch full episodes on YouTube.
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For more coverage, behind the scenes moments, and the latest from around the rink, follow in on social media.
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Thanks for spending part of your day with us.
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Until next time, we'll save you a seat for the next second intermission.